Folk Wandering NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (39)
See it if Like musicals or stories cleverly intertwined by a multitalented young.cast.
Don't see it if You only like staid old pieces with little invention, and people breaking into song to tell a tale perfectly.
See it if You enjoy folk/indie music. Enjoy innovative shows that aren't afraid to break rules. Enjoy musicals that look at American history.
Don't see it if You enjoy only more traditional book musicals that don't break the fourth wall. Don't enjoy folk/indie music. You want something "light." Read more
See it if You enjoy new musicals. You enjoy stories that span space and time.
Don't see it if You want something familiar. You want a clear thesis.
See it if You like new works by upcoming artists done by a wonderful newer non profit theater group
Don't see it if You are looking for fully developed commercial type of musicals. Read more
See it if You want to see talented energetic cast in a multigenerationsl musical.
Don't see it if You expect perfection. Lyrics sometime are lost.
See it if like musicals. really pretty current sounding music. lovely voices and acting. unusual story line and very worthwhile
Don't see it if Need a show to start strong and quickly
See it if You like stories with easy transactions between each other. Great set design, highly entertaining folk music. Totally worthy seeing it.
Don't see it if You are expecting high tech staging or don’t like folk music.
See it if You like shows that sort of sneak up on you. Quirky in its plot presentation I wasn’t sure I even liked it then found myself completely in.
Don't see it if You want a lot of straight forward action. This takes time to take shape. For a while you may not know where you’re going but it’s worth it.
Critic Reviews (6)
"Very busy...Its sheer abundance of story and song, and its fast cuts from one narrative to another, can make it feel like a tasting menu...There’s nostalgia in the gorgeously played songs...Backhaus’s stories, vivid with the colors of human experience, are a vital defense against sentimentality...The narrative frame feels forced, though, teetering between earnestness and self-consciousness without solving the problem of uniting the three different plots...Only partly succeeds."
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"Simultaneously intimate and epic as its multicultural cast conjures three tales from our collective American memory...Even if you guess where these narratives will go, you won’t anticipate the emotional epiphanies they evoke as they spin facts into melodic fiction. The numbers are enthralling throughout and make up for flaws in the storytelling...Although the show occasionally slips into pretension, it gets at something deep about the way the past can hold us back or push us forward."
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"There are a few standout dishes, the company is charming, but the whole is less than the sum of its fragmented parts...All signs suggest that we're in for something akin to side-by-side episodes of 'Wishbone' rather than a scrutinizing look at these three eras of American history. And yet, the latter portion of the show — which features one particularly jarring tonal shift — subverts that expectation in a way that leaves us more confused than moved by the suddenly changing winds."
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"The only thing linking these stories is the ineptitude with which they are told...Jaclyn Backhaus' book is so sketchy and poorly constructed that it is impossible for these three intercut narratives to build on each other...The score, by ten contributors, lacks a cohesive style or point of view...Andrew Neisler's direction allows for plenty of mugging among the members of the large cast, but there are striking contributions."
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"Beautifully performed...A charming and good-natured musical...The score is an accomplished blend of well-crafted songs in a variety of styles...Neisler's staging is expertly panoramic...Hobbs' choreography is a delightful assortment of dances and movements that represent the different time periods and moods...Though the ambitious linking of the three disparate stories is at times strained, 'Folk Wandering' succeeds as an original and absorbing entertainment."
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"The overall excellence of the ensemble is one of the joys...Where 'Folk Wandering' attempts to plumb more profound emotional depths, the production suffers from a lack of any really strong connection to the key characters...The overall quality of the scenic and performative elements of disguise some of its shakier dramaturgical elements. The book...is basically strong on a scenic level, but does not seem to know where to land...A thoroughly enjoyable new musical."
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